A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party. – Henry A. Wallace

Most Americans, regardless of their political leanings or religion, would not recognize the common good if it bit ’em in the ass. We have no genuine concept of common good. We really don’t. Toqueville observed that 170 years ago. He said that in America, no man owes another man anything. Nor is he owed by any other man. Where does that leave any movement toward the common weal requiring the cooperative efforts of more than one man?

The world is not going back to normal after the magnitude of what they have done. When the dust settles this will either work, and the money they have pushed into the system will feed through into an inflation shock, wrote Tom Fitzpatrick, Citibanks chief technical strategist.

This is not a particularly good deal for American taxpayers, but it is a marvelous deal for Citi. In return for all the cash and guarantees they are giving away, taxpayers will get only $27 billion of preferred shares paying an 8 percent dividend. No other strings are attached. The senior executives of Citi, including those who have served at the highest levels in the US government, have done their jobs exceedingly well. The American public, including the media, have not the slightest clue what just happened.

Meanwhile, more than a million workers in the automobile industry, along with six million mortgagees, and a millions of Americans who depend on small businesses and retailers for paychecks, are getting nothing at all.

Chinese carmakers SAIC and Dongfeng have plans to acquire GM and Chrysler, Chinas 21st Century Business Herald reports today.

A take-over of a large overseas auto maker would fit perfectly into Chinas plans. As reported before, China has realized that its export chances are slim without unfettered access to foreign technology. The brand cachet of Chinese cars abroad is, shall we say, challenged. The Chinese could easily export Made-in-China VWs, Toyotas, Buicks. If their joint venture partner would let them. The solution: Buy the joint venture partner. Especially, when hes in deep trouble.

That is sure to get the rah rah rah sis boom bah we’re number one crowd excited!

What this crisis reveals is a broken financial system like no other in my lifetime, said former Fed chief Paul Volcker on November 17th. Normal monetary policy is not able to get money flowing. The trouble is that, even with all this government protection, the market is not moving again.

President Obama is going to find himself on the wrong end of reality, and be forced into austerity measures that neither he or Americans are going to like one little bit. I wouldn’t want his job when he is forced to go on Prime Time TV to tell America that we simply can’t finance our profligate spending any more and that serious, real, across-the-board cuts are going to have to be made to our federal budget, entitlements and "promises" – that we simply cannot keep those promises.

Historically there is only one other way out of the trap we are now in.

Start a war.

A really big one – big enough to kill a couple million Americans (reducing competition for jobs) and destroy a trillion or more dollars in American "stuff" (that will have to be replaced.)